The Ancient Regime eBook

INTRODUCTION

Why should we fetch Taine’s work up from its
dusty box in the basement of the national library?
First of all because his realistic views of our human
nature, of our civilization and of socialism as well
as his dark premonitions of the 20th century were proven
correct. Secondly because we may today with more
accuracy call his work:

“The Origins of Popular Democracy and of Communism.”

His lucid analysis of the current ideology remains
as interesting or perhaps even more interesting than
when it was written especially because we cannot accuse
him of being part in our current political and ideological
struggle.

Even though I found him wise, even though he confirmed
my own impressions from a rich and varied life, even
though I considered that our children and the people
at large should benefit from his insights into the
innermost recesses of the political Man, I still felt
it would be best to find out why his work had been
put on the index by the French and largely forgotten
by the Anglo-Saxon world. So I consulted a contemporary
French authority, Jean-François Revel who mentions
Taine works in his book, “La Connaissance Inutile.”
(Paris 1988). Revel notes that a socialist historian,
Alphonse Aulard methodically and dishonestly attacked
“Les Origines..”, and that Aulard was
specially recruited by the University of Sorbonne for
this purpose. Aulard pretended that Taine was
a poor historian by finding a number of errors in
Taine’s work. This was done, says Revel,
because the ‘Left’ came to see Taine’s
work as “a vile counter-revolutionary weapon.”
The French historian Augustin Cochin proved, however,
that Aulard and not Taine had made the errors but
by that time Taine had been defamed and his works
removed from the shelves of the French universities.

Now Taine was not a professional historian.
Perhaps this was as well since most professional historians,
even when conscientious and accurate, rarely are in
a position to be independent. They generally
work for a university, for a national public or for
the ministry of education and their books, once approved,
may gain a considerable income once millions of pupils
are compelled to acquire these.

Taine initially became famous, not as a professional
historian but as a literary critic and journalist.
His fame allowed him to sell his books and articles
and make a comfortable living without cow-towing to
any government or university. He wrote as he
saw fit, truthfully, even though it might displease
a number of powerful persons.